04 dezembro 2007

Bem prega Frei Tomás...

The story goes a little like this, the MPAA weasels released a toolkit for universities to ostensibly track down people the content MAFIAA might be interested in extor^h^h^h^h^hchatting with. Ironically, this toolkit is based on a lot of open source software, not the usual DRM'd proprietary monstrosities they are so fond of. Getting really ironic, they appear to have modified the files and distributed them without giving out the source or telling people how to get said source files.

The technical term for doing this to GPL'd software is copyright violation. This is because if you abide by the GPL, you have a license to the copyrighted work therein. If you do not abide by it, like the MPAA appears not to have done, then you are a copyright violator.

One of the copyright holders tried in vain to get them to listen, only getting the run around from clueless secretaries. He eventually had to, wait for the added irony, contact the MPAA's ISP to get the offending copyright violations removed. Tis to laugh.

The before and after shots show the MPAA did actually remove it, but the fact remains that as of now, they appear to have done some copyright infringement, and the source and changes are nowhere to be found. Unless they do soon, we can only assume they will be sending Matthew $738,098,331.24 per CD shipped, a fair and reasonable sum by their own standards.